Trip of the Dead
Trip of the Dead
There’s a man over there wearing my tail.
Well, not my tail, literally. My tail is still secure to my rump. I’m running my paws over it right now, just to be sure.
“Don’t look at him,” Ginger says, seeing what I’m staring at. Ginger’s my best friend, a former alley cat with the style sense of one of those glossy magazines that we’d use to line our burrows behind the garbage bins in the city. It’s a weird mix of personality traits packaged up in a slim orange cat with paws that look like slouchy white socks, but somehow, Ginger owns it.
Trip is a three-year-old raccoon who hasn’t seen another live raccoon in months since the zombies arrived. With the help of his animal friends who live in The Menagerie, their makeshift home to keep them safe during the apocalypse, the friends embark on a journey to find other animals. Trip, who wants to find other raccoons, starts his journey travelling with two indoor cats, Pickles and Wally, who are on a quest to find their pets (i.e. their human owners). Readers may recognize them as characters in Misri’s earlier novel, Pickles vs the Zombies. On the journey, Trip saves a kitten, a hedgehog, two humans, and a corgi. His view of himself changes from a lonely raccoon who longs to belong with others who look like him, to someone who values family and friends, even if they are not raccoons. After saving two hundred raccoons, Trip finds out he can be alone and still be happy, and he discovers sometimes your friends and family don’t have to look like you.
Short chapters detail a long rescue mission. There are some chapters that contain dead zombies and animals being treated badly, but the descriptions are not scary or gross. Misri includes many kind animals with a sense of humour in this new story which pits animals against human zombies. These animals think, act and worry like we do. Pickles encourages Trip to eat when he’s too sad too eat. Pallas, the burrowing owl, tries to cheer Trip up with offers of a hunting trip, and the 4077th squadron of kittens surrounds him with their purrs when he’s depressed. They deal with grief over lost friends. A stranger named Duke walks around reminding Trip of all he’s lost. When Trip finds out other raccoons may be prisoners of war, he tries to help them so he can feel “less useless”. The animals show their ingenuity when crafting a bone boat and use arrows to traverse a body of water. There is a small explanation about the importance of antidotes. Although there are quite a few characters and names to keep track of, children who enjoy animal stories filled with outdoor adventures and friendships will be drawn to Trip of the Dead.
Tanya Boudreau is a librarian at the Cold Lake Public Library in Cold Lake, Alberta.